The lost art of planning

Cartwright, Timothy J.

doi:10.1016/0024-6301(87)90011-2

Cited by 13 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Ensuring requisite variety becomes particularly challenging in the face of meta-problems; that is, problems that are characterized by extreme levels of complexity (Cartwright, 1987;Emery & Trist, 1965;Hardy et al, 2006). As Trist (Trist, 1983, p. 270) writes, "[t]he issues involved are too extensive and too many-sided to be coped with by any single organization, however large."…”

Section: Inter-organizational Collaboration As a Means Of Ensuring mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter‐organizational sensemaking in the face of strategic meta‐problems: Requisite variety and dynamics of participation

Seidl

Werle

2017

Strategic Management Journal

113

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research Summary: When faced with complex strategic problems that exceed their individual sensemaking capacities, organizations often engage in inter-organizational collaboration. This enables them to pool the participants' different perspectives and to grasp the problem at hand more comprehensively. Drawing on data collected from two longitudinal case studies, we examine how those who participate in inter-organizational sensemaking processes are selected and how the particular selection of participants affects the dynamics of the sensemaking process in turn. In our analysis, we show how the selection of specific problem issues influences who joins or withdraws from the collaboration and we identify a mechanism that accounts for changes in the particular dynamics of the sensemaking process over time. Our findings help explain how the process of inter-organizational sensemaking can yield different outcomes. Managerial Summary: The ability to make sense of the business environment is central to strategic management. As the complexity of the environment increases and interpreting it becomes more difficult, organizations increasingly turn to inter-organizational collaboration, which allows them to pool their expertise in order to explore strategic issues. We examine how the participants in projects of joint exploration are selected and how the selection of participants affects the process of exploration in turn. More specifically, we describe how the aspects on which collaborating organizations choose to focus influence who joins and who withdraws from a collaboration. We also identify a mechanism that accounts for differences and changes in the dynamics of the sensemaking process over time. These changes affect how the collaborators come to understand their organization's business environment.

show abstract

Section: Inter-organizational Collaboration As a Means Of Ensuring mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter‐organizational sensemaking in the face of strategic meta‐problems: Requisite variety and dynamics of participation

Seidl

Werle

2017

Strategic Management Journal

113

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, the business policy course should educate students in planning for what organizations intend to do and to become. By enabling the students to envision the future, they will be better prepared to design strategies that will enable firms to more effectively deal with the future (Cartwright, 1987). Business policy students must be taught to generate more radical and searching scenarios of future events in the external environment (Agor, 1983).…”

Section: Imagination and Creativity In The Business Policy Coursementioning

confidence: 99%

Imagery in the Business Policy Course: An Experiential Pedagogy

Wheatley

Anthony

Maddox³

1989

Organizational Behavior Teaching Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is common agreement among most instructors of the business policy course that many aspects of the course are futuristic in nature. These aspects, which include such topics as issues management, scenario development, and trend projection, demand a futuristic orientation for the student. In a 1983 survey, Boyd and Summers reported that goal-setting tied for first place with strategic planning as items that should be included in the business policy course. Again, these are items that challenge students to envision images of a future state in time. To do this adequately, students must have fully developed their imaginal and creative skills.Although attempting to build students' imagery skills would have generated a great deal of skepticism in the past, a number of factors point to its potential value in today's business environment. Current domestic business problems dictate that business colleges produce a new breed of business manager trained to develop new and novel approaches to existing business problems. Foreign competition, with its long-term philosophies, is causing domestic businesses to begin to develop more long-range goals.

show abstract

“…There is a pressing need for this contribution, because in many cases policy makers have to concentrate on current difficulties and problems, finding expedient solutions, and they generally consider the short-term alternatives. Instead of gaining maximum benefit, decision makers are forced to choose a 'good enough' course of action (Bryson 2000;Cartwright 1987;Lindblum 1959;Simon 1976). The ability to integrate university faculty members with people working in the community may contribute to a planning process in which the possible course of action is combined with the optimal action.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%